Note: This post has been superseded by a new version of the Roster Matrix dated 4/10 which is available via this link.

What follows is a project I have considered for a long time, but I guess I needed the cold and snow of winter to motivate me to finally undertake it.

Following is a complete listing of all players currently known to be under contract in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Initially, there are 306 players from the 40-man roster down through the Venezuelan Summer League.

Because we are all impatient types, I am going to list the rosters first, with all the explanation, caveats, etc. following. Before you post comments or send notes with mistakes or corrections, please take the time to read the explanations that follow the matrix, as many of your questions may already be answered. Also, don’t forget to read the comments afterward and add your own!

For future reference, as this article falls off the front page, remember to bookmark this URL. If you forget how to find it, just put your cursor on “Players/Staff” at the top of the page and then “Depth Charts”, and you’ll be back here. Plus, the search box at the upper right is always active.

One final request. Like everything here at The Cardinal Nation, the matrix is provided at no charge. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a lot of work to create and maintain. Please be respectful and link back here if you want to reference the matrix rather than copying it elsewhere.

Updated 2/4/09: Reliever Hyang-Nam Choi signed to a minor league deal and added to Memphis roster. New total 307.

Updated 2/9/09: 2B Adam Kennedy released. New total 306

Updated 2/28/09. P Mitch Harris signed. Likely on restricted list due to active Navy service so not listed here.

While some of the players’ levels may look odd (four catchers in Memphis and none in Springfield, for example), they are placed where the Cardinals have assigned them. Of course, once working rosters begin to be “worked” in Jupiter in March, there will be changes, many of them.

Players with injuries that appear to be season-ending are noted with (i). The number in parentheses after each club’s name is the quantity of players assigned there.

The one area where I did make adjustments is in my view of the likely end-of-spring distribution of the players on the 40-man roster between St. Louis and Memphis. Otherwise, there wouldn’t yet be much of a roster in Triple-A. Like everything else, this will be fluid come spring. The 40-man players’ names are listed in BOLD.

(In that vein, I initially listed 26 players for St. Louis. I know that is one too many. I predict that one of the three lefty relievers isn’t going to make it and same with one of the righties. One the plus side, another infield reserve will be required. 26 minus two plus one will get us to 25, eventually.)

After some players’ names, you will see a number in parentheses. They denote my personal ranking of the player in the annual Top 40 Cardinals Prospects voting at Scout.com. (At The Birdhouse, my individual scores as shown here were weighted one-fourth in determining the final Scout.com ranking.)

What it isn’t

When assigning positions, I put players in just one column. My attempt was to acknowledge where they spent the majority of last season. For example, I know that Steven Hill and Tony Cruz are being tried behind the plate. That’s no different from last year, yet both ended up playing far more games at other positions.

For the pitchers, I started out with separate columns for the left-handed starters and relievers, but the table just became too big. So instead, I adopted the practice of placing the lefties at the end of the starters and relievers lists, designated by the letter (L).

Don’t read anything into the order of the names within any column, other than the LHPs at the end. I started alphabetically, but at the lower levels, I backed off. At this point, they have no correlation to playing time, duration on the roster or anything else. Step one was simply to get everyone in the right box.

This isn’t the final source on the spelling of players’ names. I have tried to remain consistent with what we use at Scout.com and what is designated at MiLB.com. Especially with the academy players, the information from the Cardinals themselves can even include mistakes.

Don’t forget the wealth of (free) information about each player that we maintain in the Scout.com player data base. It is too unwieldy to include and keep current every link to over 300 player profiles directly from the matrix, but do keep using the Scout profiles as the source for detailed information on individual players.

I will always designate the most current date when the matrix was last updated, but I am not planning to maintain a log of every transaction that occurs across the system all year. The good news is that I don’t have to.UConnCard already does that over on the Scout.com message board. My goal will be to stay in sync with that list of moves visually. So remember the link to the transaction log, especially if/when questions come up.

What it may be later on

Once the 2009 regular season begins, I hope to be noting players:

on the disabled list

sharing jobs in the tandem pitching rotations in A-ball

performing the role of closer

Perhaps I may even undertake re-ordering the players in some sort of recognition of playing time, but that remains to be seen.

What you can do

Let me know what you think about this project. Putting in the time to create and maintain it is only of value to me if it is of value to you.

Speak up if you see errors or have questions. The more eyes over the map, the more accurate it will be.

I’d like to thank CariocaCardinal and UConnCard for being the initial set of proof-readers/correctors. In addition, jrocke217’s reports on the DSL and VSL were invaluable.

In fact, Carioca’s first comments led me to the article about the releases of Carlos Pupo, Ross Oeder and Nick Peoples. So, other good can come from this kind of project, too.